In today’s first reading (2 Corinthians 9:6-11) Paul continues his exhortation to the Corinthians to be generous. He begins with a kind of proverb: skimpy sowing means skimpy reaping: “…the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” He further adds that each one should make their donation according to what has been agreed, but to do it without a long face or under a sense of compulsion: “…God loves a cheerful giver.”
As Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ says, “It is the love of the giver more than the gift of the lover that counts.” Paul further adds that the Source of everything we have will reward us generously for our generosity because he is, in fact, the original source of all that we give: “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” The more we receive, the more we are able to share with others.
The behavior to which Paul exhorts them is based on God’s own way of acting. He quotes Psalm 112 (today’s Responsorial Psalm) describing that God is capable of overwhelming generosity, so people need not fear of being short of resources. God will provide in abundance, both supplying their natural needs and increasing their inner goodness. Paul challenges them to a God-like generosity and reminds them of the fundamental motive for encouragement—God himself cannot be outdone: “He scatters abroad; he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. Paul adds: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. The more we give of what we have and what we are to others, the more enriched we become. When everyone gives, everyone gets.
In our Gospel reading (Matthew 6:1-6,16-18), we move to a different, yet related, theme: The way in which we are to pay our worship to God. Jesus warns his disciples not to indulge in any form of ostentation so as to attract the admiration of others. He presents exaggerated images of what we should not do. He speaks about people who blow trumpets in the streets to draw the attention of everyone when they give alms to the poor. He speaks about hypocrites who say their prayers in the most conspicuous places so that people will marvel at how holy they are. He speaks about people putting on gloomy and drawn looks so that everyone will know that they are fasting. In fact, Jews were only expected to fast on one day in the year—on the Day of Atonement, but the practice of regular fasting had become more common in Jesus’ time. All this, Jesus says, is not worship of God, but a kind of self-advertisement. Such people, he says, get their reward, namely, the admiration of the onlooker, but it is not the reward that comes from acts of genuine worship.
When his disciples pray or fast or give alms, they should do it in such a way that their actions will be directed entirely to God and not to themselves. We remember earlier in the Sermon on the Mount that Jesus said people should be able to see the good works of his disciples, but then the purpose was not that they would be praised, but that people would be led to glorify God.
Jesus’ recommendation that we pray in private, where only God can see us, shouldn’t be interpreted as meaning that it is not necessary for us to take part in forms of community prayer. Jesus himself prayed publicly, whenever he attended the synagogue or went to the Temple. It would be a gross misreading of this text to argue, as people sometimes are heard to do, that it is not necessary to attend Sunday Mass because “I can pray equally well in the privacy of my home”. To speak in such a way is to misunderstand completely the essentially communal nature of the Eucharistic celebration.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!